India’s Airtel Nxtra to Double Data Center Capacity by 2025

Airtel Nxtra, the data center arm of India's second-largest service provider, Bharti Airtel, is looking to capture a greater share of India's burgeoning data center market even as the competition heats up.

"We would be coming up with seven new facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi to double our capacity from the current 200MW to 400MW by 2025. Further, our upcoming 85MW data center in Mumbai, likely to be operational later this year, will be the landing station for two new subsea cables, SEA-ME-WE-6 and 2Africa Pearl," says Ashish Arora, CEO of Airtel Nxtra. The company had earlier announced that it would be investing 50 billion Indian rupees (US$600 million) by 2025 to grow its infrastructure.

Currently, Airtel Nxtra serves around 450 customers through its 12 data centers and 120 edge data centers in the country. The company would also be leveraging its parent company, Airtel's enterprise subscriber base to grow its customer base. Airtel Nxtra is owned by Airtel, with a 24% stake held by the Carlyle Group.

Stage Set for Consolidation?

India's data center market, valued at $4.35 billion in 2021, is likely to touch $10.09 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.07%, according to an Arizton research report. Increased adoption of the cloud and industry-friendly policies have helped the Indian data center industry grow. Recently, the Indian government granted infrastructure status to data centers with more than 5MW capacity, making it easier for companies to access institutional credit at lower interest rates and attract foreign investment.

Related:Amazon Commits $4.4B in Data Center Investment in Hyderabad, India

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